1. Technical Field
The present application relates to an apparatus for exchanging operating units, particularly handling head components, that are disposed at rotatable container handling machines, and that can be exchanged for carrying out filling programs, cleaning programs and/or closing programs, with the individual operating units being removed and replaced by other operating units.
2. Background Information
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine. Upon filling, a closing station closes the filled bottles. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. Bottles may be labeled in a labeling station, the labeling station having a conveyer arrangement to receive bottles and to output bottles. The closing station and the labeling station may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement.
In filling machines it is required to replace certain operating units at the handling heads. These comprise, for example, filling conduits, flushing or rinsing container, and the like. Particularly in the case of mechanical filling machines for filling beverages, when the filling height is essentially determined by the lower end of a short filling tube, it is necessary to replace the filling tube for different filling heights. Generally, these short filling tubes, (in the case that they are provided with a screw thread), are removed by unscrewing from the filling head or, respectively, handling head and they are replaced by corresponding filling tubes of another length. For a corresponding plug-in type connection of such filling tubes it has already become known to remove the filling tube by means of a pneumatic removal apparatus that is correspondingly manually actuated.
In an arrangement according to German Patent No. 19 840 172 A1 there is provided an automated mounting and exchange arrangement that can be moved into different positions, with which automated mounting and exchange arrangement the operating units can be mounted at the handling heads, can be removed therefrom, and can be moved into a storage position, and other operating units can be moved from their storage position and can be connected to the handling heads, with the automated mounting and exchange arrangement removing segments of the container handling machine in automated manner and correspondingly completes an exchange of an operating unit at least one of a number of handling heads that are disposed adjacent to one another.
The automated mounting and exchange arrangement carries out, subsequent to a rough positioning of the handling machine, an own or inherent precise positioning with respect to the handling machine, and subsequently the automated mounting and exchange arrangement carries out the exchange of the operating units.
The automated mounting and exchange arrangement comprises at least one mounting unit for one exchangeable component, or for a plurality of exchangeable components, and the automated mounting and exchange arrangement can be brought in sections into a position of agreement with the filling valves that are disposed in a circular pattern, and the automated mounting and exchange arrangement exchanges a plurality of air tubes while in the exchange position.
The individual operating procedure for exchange of operating units that are disposed at rotatable handling machines comprises the following steps:                moving of sections of the rotor of the handling machine with subsequent rough positioning;        fine positioning of the mounting unit at the handling head with removal of the operating unit and depositing thereof in a storage unit;        removing at least one operating unit from a storage unit with subsequent positioning and securing of the operating unit at at least one handling head;        determining at least one further operating position of the automated mounting and exchange arrangement and/or fine positioning into a further sector of the rotor of the handling machine that is configured to rotate in sectors.        
It is clear that such an exchange entails a considerable number of operating steps and a corresponding time consumption, even in the case of the improved prior art.
In the cleaning of such filling machines or, respectively, the handling heads thereof, if is furthermore known that the flushing or rinsing containers, that are correspondingly configured for the cleaning procedure, are individually connected to the handling heads. In this, a delivery arrangement that is configured to be brought from the exterior of the circular periphery of the filling machine is brought into a delivery position at the circular course of the filling machine, and subsequently the individual rinsing or flushing containers are brought into a fixed position, are secured to the handling stations, and are moved with the filling machine along the circular course of the filling machine. Upon completion of the flushing or rinsing cycle, the flushing or rinsing containers are separated from the handling stations by the delivery arrangement and they are placed at a location outside of the circular course of the filling machine, that is, outside of the reach of container handling machine.
In order to achieve an improvement in this procedure and arrangement, it has already been proposed that securing of the flushing or rinsing containers at the filling elements is carried out without additional means and essentially automatically, with the holding of the flushing or rinsing container beyond the exit region of the bottles being maintained, and it only being necessary to disrupt the action of the bleeder valve during the flushing or rinsing cycle. At the same time, there is also postulated in this prior art arrangement that the pressure prevailing in the filling machine is utilized in such a way that the connection of the flushing or rinsing container at the filling machine as such is maintained. (DE 23089190 C3, DE 2747501 C3, DE 3227244 C1, and DE-GM 7218143). With these known suggestions there is already achieved an essentially easier operation of the daily cleaning of such filling machines. The individual flushing or rinsing containers are moved, from a parked position at an exterior position with respect to the filling machine, onto a belt conveyer for the bottles to be filled and are delivered into the machine. Upon being brought into the circular course of the filling machine there is then carried out, by lifting of the lifting elements, also the lifting of these flushing or rinsing containers against the filling valve, with an automatic attaching of the containers at the components of the filling elements being achieved. The containers may then traverse the circular course several times and upon conclusion of the filling, they can the be removed from the machine. For this, the flushing or rinsing container is rendered pressure-less and is brought by the lifting elements again to the lower removal level of the exit conveyer.
Finally, it is known to leave the flushing or rinsing containers in the machine per se and to move them by independent lifting arrangements, that are located outside of the lifting elements that serve to lift the bottles, against the filling elements (DE 2553989 B2). As a consequence, in this known arrangement, further lifting elements are necessary for moving the flushing or rinsing containers and this is substantially adding to the entire complex machinery arrangement and the control thereof with a filling machine being complex in any way. Additionally, the further lifting elements need to be located at an appreciable distance away from the centers of the filling valves axes, per se, and therefore appreciable support problems arise during the subsequent flushing or rinsing operation.
The exchange process that needs to be done from the exterior at such container handling machines and the filling heads and handling heads thereof leads to considerable disadvantages when using aseptic filling systems, since the interiors of the clean chambers need to be entered.